Vintage Fire Trucks

I don't know about other countries in Europe. But, in Germany, not only the fire department puts their old stuff up for auction. Virtually every department does so, from the post office on up.

 

Here, when the U.S. Government disposes of anything, they go to a General Services Admin. depot and are sold for 'fair market value.' Some states and counties do the same, others do have auctions, but if there's something special you want, you had better come with plenty of bread and lettuce in your wallet. There's always some other yahoo who also wants the special item.

 

The city where I resided at, a few years ago, threw a public auction, one Saturday morning. They offed neglected bicycles which were in the way of some streetcar railway construction. I browsed by, to see if the bidding was as foolish as the bidding at a similar auction which took place over 10 years prior. You wouldn't believe how much the city made on blatant junk. These amateurs bidded each other out, without really thinking and ended up forking out way too much money for something they themselves could pick out of the trash or abandoned. At the previous auction, it was no different. Smart in school. But, dumb in life, they're.

 

Reading that wall, I wonder if Coca-Cola was still brewed with cocain, at the time of that filming.

 

Well, the coca leaf ingredient in the syrup was removed and replaced just after the turn of the 20th Century, so I would say no, it wasn't, as that rig is a 1920's apparatus.

 

https://nh.craigslist.org/cto/d/1957-gmc-ladder-truck/6258527508.html

 

Interesting to find out which grabbag engine was dropped into it. If it's honest rust, this would make an excellent motorhome conversion project:

 

It should've had a GMC industrial V-6 originally. I can't figure out what brand that engine is, but I can tell you it's not Chevrolet.

 

Yet being during the time when GM was adding the small block Chevy, Pontiac, and Olds V-8's I'd think it would be a GM engine. Was there a GMC V-8 then?
That's actually a decent truck, inside and out.

 

I don't think its the Big GMC V6 they have the spark plugs located on the intake side of the head, easy to ID. That engine looks to have 4 plug wires running down both sides. I would suspect a Chevy 454,

Here is a GMC 478 You can see the plugs on the intake side of the valve covers.

 

A Chevy 454 with an ancient oil cap and tilted to one side distributor? That's not even a Bigblock valve cover.

 

Ivy good catch, looks like it might be the original 347 GMC that is basically a Pontiac V8 of the era. I feel dumb as Pontiac's are my Hobby, but I really don't know much about the early 55-59 engines, once they settle on the 389/400 standard displacement I know them pretty well.
I forgot that GMC used different versions of the Pontiac V8 from 1955-59. The color threw me off as the V8's destined for GMC are not painted in the Standard Pontiac colors of the year they were made. Here is a picture of a Stock 57 GMC Pick up V8.



In a Pontiac car it would have been painted a Blueish Green like this 1956,

 

Get your aspirin ready, for this one:

http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/threads/1947-oldsmobile-woody.31899/#post-401492

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